One aspect of the Transhuman Space sci-fi universe is a political movement called Infosocialism-
Infosocialism posits that information and ideas are the primary means of production. It holds that copyright laws are immoral and that all intellectual property rights should be owned by one entity, usually a government or a private organisation (such as the Free Software Foundation).
In TS's future of 2100, a good hunk of the developing world in Southeast Asia and Latin America have elected or installed infosocialist governments that ignore intellectual property rights and develop new IP by directly commissioning work from scientists, authors and other creators. That does not endear them to the rest of the world; China and the Transpacific Alliance of infosocialists fought a nasty war in the 2080s over the issue.
That mythical infosocialism doesn't see to far away from the Pirate Party's MO. We've seen the PP make strides in German state elections, making its way into two state legislatures this spring. PP affiliates in the Netherlands and the UK are creating headaches for officials in those countries who are trying to shut down the Pirate Bay site sponsored by the Swedish PP. Their North Sea brethren are setting up alternative routes to circumvent blocking Pirate Bay URLs, creating a cyber game of whack-a-mole, where new alternatives get created as old ones get blocked.
File sharing sites where you can get illicit access to movies, music, or (ironically) PDF copies of Transhuman Space game books are the current love of the Pirate Parties, but that could well morph into something resembling infosocialism, if that extends to ignoring patents as well as copyrights.
[Update 5:15PM-I Googled around and found that the Swedish PP leader is a Transhuman Space fan and one German blogger was three years ahead of me on the TS-PP link. Interesting.]
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